AMONG THE GODS

Baba Yaga, bored, has been reading about herself

“Did you know,” she asks Perrun, who drops by

To talk about the weather, “that I am often associated

With certain types of mushrooms, a type of cake

And also a pear? I am kin to evil Czech wood nymphs

As well as a slow-moving Lithuanian sort of elf.

I appear in a list of deities in Mikhail Lomonosov’s

Great work Russiiskaia Grammatika

There are, it says, sometimes three of me; all

Called Baba Yaga. One of them is sometimes kind

Which one do you suppose I am?” Perrun says

“Not the kind one, I think; I have been here an hour

And you have not offered me any food; no tea

No mushrooms, no pear, and certainly no cake.”